Episode 26 The Beechgrove Garden

Well, hello and welcome to Beechgrove Garden,

the last programme of the present series.

Aww, what a shame! And we've got a full turnout.

It's nice to see Chris back again,

and add young Mr Cunningham to the troops.

And we're all raring to go, and I tell you what,

we're not going to be short of vegetables over the winter months.

We've got plenty of fresh vegetables right here in front of us,

and we should start with brassicas, I think. What is your choice?

I'll go for the kale, Redbor, for the colour. I think it's amazing.

That's good, but what about this? Seaweed kale. Look at the...

That's such a bold texture, and the way the water's sitting on that,

-I think that...

-It's lovely.

That's good enough to be in an ornamental garden, isn't it?

-Definitely.

-Absolutely.

-Brussels sprouts.

-Look at that. Eh?

Parsnips. They're crackers.

-How about mine?

-Possibly better for a small family.

Nice smelling. Smell nice.

They do, don't they? Yes.

It's good!

But not only parsnips, but we've got plenty there. Let's get on with it.

The garden I'm visiting specialises in cloud pruning,

and this is just one superb example.

And the spring bedding is looking good.

It may be autumn but, already, we're preparing for next spring.

Well, now, as the days shorten and the light gets worse,

we've a bit of work to do in the glasshouses.

First thing to do is, of course, to take off the shading.

This was painted on in the summer.

It's there for the whole time.

It's got to be removed now, and it's quite a laborious job,

whereas next door we've used netting that was rolled down when we need it

and rolled back on these dull days, even in the middle of summer.

So, as I say, that's the easiest part of this job.

Before we go much further,

I just wanted to take a minute to talk about what we've done in here

during the summer. We've tried this,

four different plants in this watering system.

Two different tomatoes, two different cucumbers.

They got on all right together.

It worked reasonably well.

The other thing that we started off doing was to use a new compost.

And this new compost, which is on the market, it's available,

is made up of bark and woodchip and coir.

No green waste,

so there's an element of consistency about it which I really like.

About 12p a litre.

It's doing rather nicely.

These plants are in it and have been since they were cuttings,

so they're doing well. Now we get to the job, and, of course,

what we're looking to do is to clean out all the gubbins,

all the muck and everything

in the glasshouse that has accumulated over the year.

And the first thing we do is to absolutely fumigate.

Two ways of doing it.

There is this, using a candle, which is a garlic.

I'm not so fond of this for this part of the season.

I would prefer to use a sulphur candle

which gets into all the nooks and

crannies and kills the disease that's there and kills, maybe,

some eggs and insects and so on.

So sulphur fumigation at this time.

Take the plants out,

keep them out for a day or two and then get them back in again.

Block up the door, light the candle, late afternoon, perhaps,

when the temperature is up.

You want a temperature 15, 20C for the first two or three hours,

but leave it overnight, and in the morning,

open the door and walk away and let it ventilate itself.

Clean up, and then you're ready to start the next start of the process

and that, of course, is to wash it down using a disinfectant.

And, of course, one of the laborious things to do is to actually,

and I started here,

is to use a label to get that muck out

from between the glazing bars, you see?

And then a really good wash with a hose and disinfectant.

And, as with all washing,

you must rinse properly,

because the last thing you want is little pockets

of disinfectant caught up here, and then you've got nice,

valuable seedlings there and it drips down and burns them.

So be sure that you do the job properly.

Then if you're going to use the glasshouse in late winter

into spring for propagation,

you need to insulate,

and the best way to do that is using bubble polythene.

The whole thing is enveloped with bubble polythene.

This little fella is made to go and trap the polythene here.

It's stretched tight, and then you put that into hold it in place,

and the point is that you've got an insulation layer there.

If the polythene hits the glass,

you're spoiling the insulation altogether.

So be sure to take your time and do the job properly.

A-ha, I've found you, George, digging to Australia!

Just about it, I'll tell you.

Yeah. Well, would you believe it?

We're looking ahead to the spring of 2017, looking at a few problems,

increasing plants and various jobs.

Yeah. We've not been terribly satisfied with the growth here

in the fruit cage, and that's why we've been digging these holes.

-So we've got... Yeah, so test pits.

-Yeah, test pits.

We've got one over there, one over here and one down there.

The idea is to try and see whether

there is any water lying underneath and

ponding in this area, which is then causing the poor growth.

We've always thought it's been a bit of a problem, haven't we?

Yeah. This was a nursery site and it's on a slope.

Water naturally runs down a hill,

and I'm convinced that it ponds in here,

and, you know, when I was digging this...

-See this?

-Wow!

-Look, look!

-Really claggy.

-Oh, it smells!

-No, the fruit hasn't particularly grown that well.

No. Top growth's been bad.

So we'll monitor it, won't we?

We'll monitor these holes and we'll come back.

Well, in the spring, we'll see exactly what the problem is,

whether it's filled up with water or not, we'll watch it over the winter,

see what's happening, but...

-Now some jobs.

-Get on with some work.

-What are you doing?

-I'm going to go and take some cuttings.

-Great.

-All right.

I've come round to this fan-trained gooseberry

to get some wood for cuttings.

We're going to create some new plants from this.

But what the problem is with gooseberries, very often,

is that right from the very base,

at soil level, you get these prickly shoots.

See that one there? You get these prickly shoots arising,

and they're an absolute menace.

What I want to do is to take a set

of cuttings which show you how to avoid that happening.

So all we're going to do at this point is,

take one or two cuttings from this, taking the young wood off the plant,

take these, go down to the potting shed and sort them out down there.

Well, you know, it's quite amazing how quickly

these plants have grown in the gravel garden.

It's only three years.

And why I'm shifting this one out is not because it's in the way,

but look at that, as comparison to that.

These are both muhlenia,

but this is the variegated form and this one has reverted.

There's just a little sign of the variegation left,

so it's much more vigorous.

We want to take that out, and what I would then do is,

I would chop that really hard back, and I could divide that.

I'm sure I could get another three plants,

and we could put them somewhere else.

Well, I've got the gooseberry cuttings here, but I've also been

round the garden and I've taken one or two other cuttings.

I've got some jutes here,

there's some cornus, willow and blackcurrant.

Now, these cuttings are all taken the same way.

These are all hardwood cuttings,

and this is the time of year to take hardwood cuttings.

Normally, we'd take them when the leaves are just off

the plants, and you make a cutting which will be, what,

about ten inches long, something like that, so 250 millimetres,

cutting it below a node at the bottom

and just above a node, or a bud,

at the top. So we would snip that off there.

Now, that's your cutting,

and that then goes into the soil and we plant that

vertically in the soil, like that,

so that the top of the shoot is just at soil level.

We do the same thing with the jutes, we'll do the same with the cornus,

same with the willow, so that's easy enough.

But I... I was telling you about this problem there is

with these really vicious shoots

that come out the bottom of the gooseberry.

Right, here are the gooseberry shoots,

and we do something completely and utterly different with that.

We're going to be quite brutal to this fellow.

I'm going to cut it off just below a node there, right?

So we've got the bud at the bottom, we've got buds all the way up here.

What I'm going to do is, I'm just going to take these buds off.

Right, can you see that? Just going to take these buds off just with the

blade of the secateurs, so that what I create here is a leg.

I've got a portion of this stem which has got no buds on it at all.

So that means that this is going to have a clear leg like that,

no buds on it, therefore no prickly shoots.

And I'll leave one, two, three buds on the top,

and I'll snip that off there.

We'll get three shoots coming away from there and then that now,

just like the other cuttings, gets inserted into the soil.

But this has got to be a bit deeper, cos I want that to be right down,

so that the top of the cutting is just at soil level.

And we won't get any more of these vicious shoots

on our gooseberry bush.

Now, you'll see I've done a little bit of clearing the path,

because it was getting so overgrown.

All I've done, basically,

is cut back some of the lovely seed heads on the grasses,

and it hasn't really ruined the plant itself.

I don't want to cut them all back,

because it's wonderful to leave

some of these seed heads over the wintertime,

because when you get those frosts they look absolutely beautiful.

Now, what's the problem here?

It's a grass that is overshadowing another grass.

This one is a muhlenia, looks great.

And this, I think, is superb - a deschampsia.

That one's OK.

But look, we've got three little plants here

being totally overshadowed.

My idea will be...is we will lift these three.

This clump, I reckon, again, could be divided.

And I've got the perfect place, just behind here, fill the gap.

Right, Carol, here's another one for the collection.

I think we're going to end up filling the conservatory!

I mean, the whole idea, George,

is you're bringing in the bay to add to the

camellias, because we want to keep these frost-free, don't we?

And the other thing is, not too much water either.

Don't give them a lot of water, don't get them wet and heavy.

Just keep them on the dry side.

Ticking them over, maybe about 5-7 degrees Celsius,

something like that.

Slightly different, though, for the citrus,

and doesn't that one look lovely

-and healthy? Look at the fruits.

-And the flowers.

So, although you've got to be a bit careful with the watering,

we've got to change the feeding regime from a summer feed,

we're going onto the winter feed.

The difference, the summer feed is high in nitrogen.

So we're slowing down the growth.

We've actually got equal amounts now of nitrogen,

phosphorus and potassium.

-Excellent.

-Now, this is the real dry corner.

People don't like to stop watering house plants!

But the amaryllis, completely give them a rest.

We want all that foliage to go brown.

Give them a rest for eight weeks

and start them off then at Christmas-time.

And then the achimenes at the bottom, again,

these will just be completely dried off.

Because they're tiny little tubercles,

and we leave those and the oxalis until spring.

Spring 2017!

It'll soon be spring!

I tell you what, you guys were

fairly getting off your mark in the last piece.

Lots of jobs, getting ready for spring.

-And there's a lot more.

-Definitely.

Now, look at this tuber, dahlia tuber.

Yes, indeed. So, we are actually into the business

of half hardy perennials,

which don't need to be thrown out and then have to purchase again.

We can keep these over the winter

and will grow them again in the spring.

The dahlia, so, very often we say wait until a touch of frost

when this goes black and the foliage dies back.

With good reason.

The fact of the matter is, if it gets blackened with frost,

the plant gets the message, it's finished, and it will shut down.

-Yes.

-There are cases where,

if you lift them too early and dry them off,

they won't mature properly.

They won't ripen properly, if you like.

So, this is what we do next.

What I'm doing then is cutting it like that.

And turn it upside down.

We take it into the garage, and we do that.

And we use all of them just to hold themselves up.

Because, a lot of these stems are very sappy,

and if you sit them like that,

the moisture will drain down into the neck.

And you might get neck rot, then.

Well, apart from anything else,

it's around the neck of these stems

that the new shoots will come next spring.

They don't come from the end of the tubers.

And then once that's dry,

then you've got to get dry sand, dry leaf mould,

something like that. Pack them together.

Yeah, yeah.

-Keep them frost-free.

-Frost-free.

-In the dark.

Similar, I think, with the begonias as well.

The tuberous begonias.

Yes. This little illumination here was bought as plus, wasn't it?

Sometimes, with the length of growing season that they get,

they don't produce a tuber,

but this one has, it's got a little tuber there.

Now, we'll dry these off,

take them out the pot, lay them out, dry them off.

-All the foliages...

-The foliage will die.

-..dies.

And then when that's dry, we'll get that off as well.

I'd keep the tubers moist,

so that, again, you don't want them to shrivel.

Not too wet, but as you say, slightly moist.

Covered in a bit of sand or whatever.

Slightly different, I think, with chrysanthemums.

These are looking really good at the moment.

Cut these back, what, six inches?

-Something like that?

-Yeah, yeah. 15 centimetres, dear.

Right, 15 centimetres!

You can already see, actually, lots of new growth coming at the base.

So these are the stools, you have to keep those moist, don't you?

So you pot them up, or box them up, and just keep them in the light.

But ticking over and no more.

Then, come the spring, the cycle starts all over again.

-Way to go.

-Ready to go.

As autumn creeps in,

one or two plants are still hanging onto their summer glory.

The cosmos is still doing us proud.

But as they fade, it's worth thinking about feeding the soil,

because we've got to think ahead to next year, and enriching the soil,

so that whatever we plant in here,

which is likely, incidentally,

to be the exotics which are currently above,

whatever we plant in here benefits from it.

And, really, this is the time of year when you should be emptying the

compost heap, emptying your leaf litter bins

and spreading this wonderful home compost material on the ground.

And the idea is that we are feeding the macro and micro-organisms.

That really is the heart, the key,

the foundation, of success in the garden.

What we are talking about is things like earthworms.

Have you counted yours recently?

There should be about 80,000 in the average garden.

And if you're looking for macro and microorganisms, well,

including the fungi and bacteria, you'll find around about

seven million per gram of soil.

If you get to seven million, you know you've got great soil.

Now, the point of all these organisms

is that they digest this organic

matter down. So they are constantly breaking it down.

Worms, for instance, will consume the same leaf six or seven times.

Every time it goes through their gut, they release enzymes.

Those enzymes promote plant growth,

particularly rooting and flowering.

So it's all aiding to next season's growth.

And then, of course, there's the fact that

all of this stuff is dark brown.

The fact that it has a dark colour allows it to absorb more of the

sun's energy, even through the winter months.

But more importantly,

incorporating the organic matter right into the soil profile.

And that organic matter then acts as a buffer between soil particles,

stops compaction, so the next time you're walking on the garden

you don't get so much compaction,

and, it allows better drainage,

but also, better water retention.

So here's a thought. If you add

about five centimetres depth of organic matter

over the surface of the ground,

let the organisms naturally incorporate it,

next year, on a sandy soil,

you'll be able to hold 50% more water in the ground.

Less watering, better plant growth.

Brian, what, two months, three months since you've seen this?

What do you think of your Alpine garden now?

I'm quite chuffed, actually. It's looking quite established.

The plants are putting on some good growth, which is a good sign.

It means they're happy in their new home.

These ones up there look splendid, don't they?

These little cushions.

Look at the saxifrage,

look at the way it's grown already,

following that crevice line down there.

And this pratia, look at the roots.

That's it going down searching.

And then, look at the astilbe, absolutely stunning.

For the end of October, that is just cracking, isn't it?

-That's going to go on for a while yet.

-Yeah.

-And it's fitted in well with that wee slope.

-That's right.

Most of these things are hardy, they are things you chose because

they're hardy and they'll take

the winter that we throw at them, no bother at all.

But sometimes, even with that,

there's things that need a wee bit of protection.

Now, this lewisia, which is down here, perfectly hardy,

that's on a slope. It will shed the water, not be a hassle at all.

But this one on the top, it's sitting with its leaves like that,

and it's going to get all the water that the skies throw at it.

So I think that will need a little bit of a cover over it.

We could do it with a sheet of glass,

or we can do it with this polycarbonate sheeting.

All I've done is got some pieces of wire, which we've bent,

and then we just fit that over the top like that.

So that's just a little,

it's like a greenhouse with all its doors and windows open,

and the air can rush through that

and keep the whole thing dry on the top. Still be wet underneath.

The person that planted that really should've known

what they were doing though, eh?

They should have, aye, they should have.

But, now, down this side where we've got the slate stream,

we're going to put some muscari down there.

It's a thing called Mount Hood, it has a little white tip to it,

and that'll accentuate the flow of the bulbs when they

come up in the spring, and that will naturalise and spread all over.

And what I'm going to do is, I've got this little dwarf narcissus,

it only gets about 15 centimetres high.

So, I'm going to start up at the mountaintop,

I'm going to get it coming down in dribs and drabs,

and we'll get a nice wee display down at the bottom.

A pool at the base.

-Aye.

-Brilliant.

I'm 950 feet high in Midlothian,

and the garden I'm about to see has been sympathetically planted

to blend in with this wonderful moorland landscape.

Now, of course, that also means the plants are going to have to be tough

to withstand the exposed conditions.

Andrew Moore is the gardener at Huntly Cot

and has been looking after the garden for the last three years.

When I came here three years ago,

I set upon changing the garden.

It was originally quite overgrown.

Shrubs intermingled with heathers.

What I did was I set upon cloud pruning the shrubs, one by one,

so the whole garden would flow into the moorland in the background.

Beautiful, and I want to stop and admire your cloud pruning here.

So that's a pernettya - or several pernettyas.

Yes, that's right.

And what a beautiful shape you have made of that.

So, how do you go about it?

Well, it's all done by hand, so what I did is I started to

make the shape so it would meld into the moorland in the background

and the pernettya gave me that scope, because it was so overgrown

and that's what the effect is.

So, you don't have a plan, that shape just forms for you?

It does, yes.

So you've got some of these major shrubs and you've cloud pruned them.

And then the heathers. Now, some of these are quite old, aren't they?

Yes, when the garden was originally commissioned by owner Peter de Vink

20 years ago, they were planted and what's happened is, over time,

they were let go.

At that stage you, have to replace them because when they're too leggy,

you can't cut them back.

You can't go into the old wood, so really you have to prune every year.

It's quite important.

So, you're doing some new plantings?

Yes, over in this new bed here we have Erica darleynsis Ghost Hills.

Lovely white blooms.

They're just starting to flower, but it's going to be a mass of flowers.

What about the one on the corner with the purple flowers?

Yeah, that's Erica cinerea Purple Beauty.

Now, the whole point of heathers is that you can get

flower 12 months of the year, can't you?

Oh, it's incredible, it really is,

and when one starts, another goes on.

It's just like a magic carpet.

That's a beautiful phrase. And, also, I mean, the foliage?

What about the tree heather, the golden one?

Oh, yeah, that's Albert's Gold.

-It really is, it's almost iridescent.

-Stunning.

Well, I want to see some more of your beautiful cloud pruning.

I cloud prune this Weigela every second year

to allow for form and flower.

So, we give it a rest from pruning

one year and it will flower the next.

And, again, there's a lovely flow to it.

The cotoneaster, presumably when you came as well,

was that right over the wall?

It did completely obscure it.

What I've done is taken it right back to expose the wall

and to allow the shrubs to merge into one another.

It's absolutely tremendous.

Herbaceous border, you've got a bit of a colour theme going on?

Yes, Carol. This is soft white with a Limelight hydrangea,

soft yellows and we move through the border into blue and then pink

at the front of the house.

And the fact that you've got colour and we're into October.

Oh, it's incredible.

Now, what I think's incredible are your lilies.

I know they've passed flowering, but the size of the stems,

you are so exposed here with the wind...

The wind just rolls off the moor.

But you haven't staked them?

It's the variety, Yellow Rocket.

Extremely strong stems.

Perfect for here. Any new products on the go?

Yes, well, actually I have a tapestry inspired vegetable garden.

Would you like to have a look?

I'd love to see that.

This was a blank canvas five months ago,

so everything you see was planted in that timeframe.

And I'm very happy with the result.

And where did you get your inspiration from?

From a famous tapestry called Lady And The Unicorn.

It's a 16th-century tapestry and the main allegory behind it is the rich

abundance in the natural world,

so I wanted to include flowers and vegetables together.

Yes, so you've got that mix of ornamental and productive.

-And encouraging the wildlife?

-Oh, yeah.

We've allowed the artichokes to go to flower

because the bees love them.

You'll often come in and see them lying in the pollen

and we want to, obviously, do our bit to encourage the bee population.

So, is that why you've also got the cut-flower border?

Yeah, because it's a synergy, it all works together.

Now, what is your secret when it comes to the fact that

the plants are looking so healthy?

You don't use any chemicals, so how do you condition the ground?

We're very lucky because we have 20-year-old horse manure

and we go in and we've scooped out the heart,

which is the most nutritious and oldest part,

and we've brought it up here and we mix it with topsoil.

And it works for you, doesn't it?

I find it incredible that those standards with the box balls.

I mean, again, no staking?

They're quite happy there?

They are, and we do get an incredible wind,

even though we have a small break there.

The one thing that's fantastic, though, is the quality of light.

Well, haven't we got that today.

-Incredible.

-Quality of light,

The quality of the setting as well and the work that you've done,

-it's fantastic.

-Thank you.

-Thank you so much.

It was a pleasure.

Earlier, when Carole and I

were dealing with these half-hardy perennials...

I'm cleaning off the begonias,

this Illumination here, and just next to the tuber,

look what's come out of the wet soil.

That's a larva of the vine weevil.

And he's going to get into these tubers - but, no, he ain't.

He thinks he is.

Because we'll clean this off as it dries up and that will

finish them off. But it just shows what can be happening under the soil

when you're not aware of it, because we'd no knowledge of it.

Earlier on, the plants were fine until the weather

took a turn for the worse.

It's the last chance to admire our grapes, and what a good crop

we've got this year.

This variety, Black Hamburg, always does particularly well in Scotland,

and we've also got a green variety called Foster's Seedling.

But the point I want to make is, over the winter time,

we want lots of good ventilation,

we are going to keep the doors open because it wants the cold

to initiate the buds for next year.

Our alpine wall is looking really good now,

but, after a summer of rain,

the wall's starting to settle down now and there's a few gaps

beginning to appear.

So, we can fill them with soil and this will allow the likes of the

oxalis to run through them,

while we can leave some of the bigger holes and we could use them

for planting up in spring.

In the gardening for small spaces area,

we fed the soil really heavily,

lots of organic matter, lots of fertiliser to get lots and lots

of leaves and look at that - even at the end of October,

we've got leaves for salad, we've got leaves in order to stir fry,

and we've got some root vegetables to pickle and use over the winter.

The whole thing has been a fabulous success.

Prise yourself away from all of those autumn jobs that you know you

should be doing, but give yourself a moment to gaze at the autumn colour.

It's a great season and it's only here just so briefly.

Acer Bloodgood, the finest, perhaps,

of all of the domestic garden trees and if they get too big,

cut them down. They'll coppice beautifully.

And how about that as a contrast? Hamamelis - fabulous vase of stems,

budding up really well for spring flowers too,

but at the moment, breathtaking.

Well, then, guys and gals,

I don't think anybody's going to disagree with the fact that

we've had a very fruitful season. Have we not? Despite the weather!

-Absolutely.

-Just look at that display.

This is fabulous and I think we should congratulate the gardeners

behind the scenes, not just for this but I mean for the whole season,

-all the work they've done.

-Well, indeed - but it's a great display.

And what about this carrot, George, Yellowstone?

I've grown that before, it's a beautiful carrot.

-Looks unusual.

-It's the beetroot, for me.

Look at the markings on that.

That'll look good on my plate.

But you can't forget the gourd, particularly the squash, as well.

Cut the head off, bit of butter and garlic,

stick it in the oven wrapped in foil.

Just melts away, doesn't it. Delicious. And also, what about...

-..look - lobelias.

-I know.

-The sequoias.

-Wonderful colour.

-Ornamental and productive.

And a bit of sunshine.

I can't let it pass - fishnets.

THEY ALL LAUGH Are they yours?

What can I say to that?

I'd have a job getting them right up!

If you'd like any more information about this week's programme -

sadly, it's the last one in this series -

you can get all the information on the website.

And also, if you'd like to apply to Beechgrove for next year,

again, have a look on the website.

And if you'd like to apply to see Jim in his fishnet stockings,

at the roadshow - you may remember we do this at Nairn,

Gairloch and Strathkinness -

then the information about roadshows is also on the website.

We look forward to that.

Or, if you've got a little problem in the corner of your garden

that you want us to come and help you with, well, look on the website.

And if you, or someone you know,

has a wonderful garden that you think one of us could come and

take a sneaky wee peek at, then, again, get in touch via the website.

Let's end on a really smashing note.

Beechgrove Garden will be back with you again next spring.

And, in the meantime, you'll do as we all do - we keep gardening.

-Until then, bye-bye.

-Bye-bye.

-Goodbye.

-Goodbye!